Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens to ASFS? Theoretically it's not a neighborhood school but rather an options school for students who are in boundary for 3 schools and after that for the entire county?

So Key/ASFS is a zone with two option schools and NO neighborhood school. ASFS is the defacto neighborhood school because it is the most mainstream program. What are they thinking in terms of this zone?

Under this vision the whole 'team' thing in that part of the county goes away. There really is no reason that this little area of the county should have some exclusive school options. Key becomes just a immersion option program for one half of the county while Claremont is the immersion option for the other half of the county (and the "halfs" area East/West, not North/South). They suggested that all neighborhood schools would have as a default a "STEAM" instructional model since the usual description of the STEAM model is all things they would want all ES kids to get -- problem solving, creativity, innovation, emphasis on science, math and arts, along with literacy of course. So ASFS becomes a neighborhood school with nothing particularly unique about its instructional focus.

Each half of the county would have an immersion option and an IB option plus the countywide options for Montessori and ATS. However, they have completely overlooked the fact that Campbell is also a unique program.

Anonymous wrote:What happens to ASFS? Theoretically it's not a neighborhood school but rather an options school for students who are in boundary for 3 schools and after that for the entire county?

So Key/ASFS is a zone with two option schools and NO neighborhood school. ASFS is the defacto neighborhood school because it is the most mainstream program. What are they thinking in terms of this zone?

What happens to ASFS? Theoretically it's not a neighborhood school but rather an options school for students who are in boundary for 3 schools and after that for the entire county?

I think someone should write to the board and try to clarify this.

Anonymous wrote:So Campbell becomes a neighborhood school?

That's how I'm reading it. Looks like all the Montesori and Immersion people organized to expand their programs. As a Campbell parent I assumed we'd actually be able to enroll students countywide, like the other option schools. Instead our program is getting shuttered. Great.

Reed has to have a neighborhood option. See the any McKinley thread from the past year for the reason.

So Campbell becomes a neighborhood school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I noticed that, too. Why not make it a countywide school like ATS?

I felt like there was a certain disconnect between the presentations. The first presentation seemed to say, no more neighborhood preference- so I was expecting to see ATS,Campbell, Montessori, and Immersion as options without neighborhood preference, and everything else as neighborhood schools. Then the second presentation had this tracked approach- where you could either go neighborhood, montessori, immersion, or IB. It wasn't clear if the elementary IB schools- Randolph and Reed would be options school and not neighborhood- or neighborhood schools that you could opt into- which seems to go right back to what they are trying to get away from in the updates to the options policy.
Similarly- it's not clear if ATS and HB Woodlawn fit into the new vision of the school system.

They kept ATS, Montessori as ES options, and Montessori and HB as options, and jettisoned Campbell. Looks like if you don't have a PAC and half your students are fr/l, you don't get a voice. Well done, APS.

Anonymous wrote:

I noticed that, too. Why not make it a countywide school like ATS?

I felt like there was a certain disconnect between the presentations. The first presentation seemed to say, no more neighborhood preference- so I was expecting to see ATS,Campbell, Montessori, and Immersion as options without neighborhood preference, and everything else as neighborhood schools. Then the second presentation had this tracked approach- where you could either go neighborhood, montessori, immersion, or IB. It wasn't clear if the elementary IB schools- Randolph and Reed would be options school and not neighborhood- or neighborhood schools that you could opt into- which seems to go right back to what they are trying to get away from in the updates to the options policy.
Similarly- it's not clear if ATS and HB Woodlawn fit into the new vision of the school system.

Anonymous wrote:All of the high school options are depressing.

Why is the high school at Kenmore idea depressing?

Anonymous wrote:For all the discussion there has been about options school revisions and the new choice school I am surprised no one is talking about the school board work session last night. This is what I think I heard-
1. They are proposing to eliminate neighborhood preference for all options schools- admission would be solely by lottery.
2. They are considering opening Reed as a IB elementary school. If I read this slide consistently with the earlier presentation, I would assume that it would make it an options school, with no neighborhood.
3. They are considering 3 different high school options. A 1) 9th grade academy/IB school at the Education Center; 2) A 'comprehensive' high school at Kenmore; 3)A neighborhood/build out of Arlington Tech at the Career Center.
4. I had some trouble reconciling the first presentation on options policy and the second presentation on rethinking the instructional model. For example, in the second presentation it appeared to have Campbell as a neighborhood school- I wasn't sure if they were getting rid of it as an option b/c it didn't fit their model, or what.
https://www.apsva.us/school-board-meetings/school-board-work-sessions-meetings/

I noticed that, too. Why not make it a countywide school like ATS?

Reed

The read neighborhood folks are going to lose their minds!

All of the high school options are depressing.

For all the discussion there has been about options school revisions and the new choice school I am surprised no one is talking about the school board work session last night. This is what I think I heard-
1. They are proposing to eliminate neighborhood preference for all options schools- admission would be solely by lottery.
2. They are considering opening Reed as a IB elementary school. If I read this slide consistently with the earlier presentation, I would assume that it would make it an options school, with no neighborhood.
3. They are considering 3 different high school options. A 1) 9th grade academy/IB school at the Education Center; 2) A 'comprehensive' high school at Kenmore; 3)A neighborhood/build out of Arlington Tech at the Career Center.
4. I had some trouble reconciling the first presentation on options policy and the second presentation on rethinking the instructional model. For example, in the second presentation it appeared to have Campbell as a neighborhood school- I wasn't sure if they were getting rid of it as an option b/c it didn't fit their model, or what.
https://www.apsva.us/school-board-meetings/school-board-work-sessions-meetings/